Christmas presents

The holiday season just slipped right by at our house this year. I got a really nasty cold in early December and kept it for a week and a half. Then Jeff got it, and his was even worse.

By the time I made his stubborn self go to the doctor, he had acute bronchitis, tonsillitis and a sinus infection. His doctor fussed at him. She said if he had waited another day or two, he would have had full-blown pneumonia.

After his appointment, Jeff called me at work.

"You were right, and I was wrong," he said.

Now normally, I would truly relish hearing that. But in this case, I would rather have heard that he had a cold and would get over it quickly.

So between the two of us, we sicked away the first three weeks of December.

Many of our usual holiday traditions fell by the wayside.

We did put up decorations and bought presents. We watched some Christmas movies and made some cookies. So we did make some good memories.

Biscuit asked Santa for two toys. Both brightly colored, noise-making critters that transform from one thing to another. Santa kept trying to prompt him into asking for more, but that's all he said he wanted.

Jeff and I got up Christmas morning and checked out what Santa had left. I walked upstairs and woke up Biscuit about 8:30 a.m.

"Do you want to see what Santa left?" I asked.

"Um, no thank you," Biscuit said. "I'd like to sleep a little while longer."

And he did. He slept for about 45 more minutes before he hollered and said he was ready to come downstairs.

Biscuit got an electronic drum set. He's been saying he wanted to play drums for a couple of years now. He started piano lessons in February, and he's enjoying it, but he said he'd still like to learn to play the drums.

I tracked down a professional drummer to ask some questions. My main question was whether Biscuit could establish any irreparable playing habits if he just messed around on his own. We're not doing drums lessons AND piano, and I explained to Biscuit that if you learn piano, any instrument you learn after that will be easier.

The drummer assured me that if we check out online videos to teach Biscuit how to hold the sticks, he'll be fine.

So even though I thought drums were a very cool gift, I assumed that Biscuit would go straight for those toys he asked for. But I was happily surprised when he walked straight over to the drums. He sat down and started hitting every head and every cymbal.

Sadly, they weren't plugged in because Santa had forgotten to leave an adapter for the speakers. The set has speakers to hear the drums out loud. There's also a plug-in for headphones. And they make headphones just for kids that have volume governors on them. He can also plug in an mp3 player to play along with songs.

Biscuit also got several new books. Santa left him a couple of character toothbrushes in his stocking as a reminder that he needs to take care of his permanent teeth. There were a couple of board games and a treasure chest.

Here are a few pictures and a video of Christmas morning: